Mattress Recycling – The New, Innovative Way to Protect the Environment

 

Large business ventures, individuals and the government can all contribute co-operatively to the practice of mattress recycling. The recycling process starts with the collection and disposal of junk mattresses from consumers. Most neighborhoods gather mattresses for recycling using three main techniques, that is, drop-off centers, curbside scrap pickup, and at the local landfill.

 

Most of the thirty million mattresses disposed in the USA annually end up in landfills. The difficulty with recycling mattresses is, because of the nature of their construction it is hard to take the materials apart, particularly where springs are concerned. In addition, mattresses are unwieldy, making conveying them to a recycling center a challenge for most people.

 

The city of Lewisham, England, has an innovative mattress-recycling scheme in place for its residents. You leave your mattress out on your usual collection day with a special sticker obtained from your local library displayed prominently on it. As long as the sticker is visible, the mattress will be taken away and recycled. This is a worthwhile waste management scheme, since up to ninety-three percent of a mattress can be recycled.

 

There are many other ways of doing some creative mattress recycling. If the mattress is still fairly new, you can give it to a friend or family member – all you have to do is ask whether they’d like to have it. You can also donate it to a charitable or non-profit organization. Some companies take in old mattresses and use the spring components and anything else that can be recycled to make new reconditioned mattresses.

 

Several centers have opened up in recent times both in the US and the United Kingdom that offer full mattress recycling. One center in California was able to recover the parts of over twenty-five thousand mattresses in just one year. Mattress recycling can help decrease some of the pressure on the landfills in America.